UNITED NATIONS, Jan 15 : The United Nations warned Syria's warring parties on Thursday that starvation sieges were a war crime as it pushed for an easing of the dire humanitarian crisis ahead of peace talks, just 11 days away.
France, Britain and the United States called for an emergency meeting of the Security Council to press demands for aid to reach some 400,000 civilians facing starvation in besieged areas.
French Ambassador Francois Delattre told AFP that the meeting to be held Friday from 2000 GMT "will draw the world's attention to the humanitarian tragedy that is unfolding in Madaya and in other towns in Syria." After months of negotiations, a second convoy carrying food and other necessities entered Madaya on Thursday where residents told AFP they had been surviving on soup from boiled grass. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued his strongest warning to date on the use of sieges as a tactic of war as preparations gathered steam for talks on ending the five-year conflict in Geneva on January 25. "Let me be clear: the use of starvation as a weapon of war is a war crime," Ban told reporters. ?AFP